Never mind what I said about May . . .

We awoke again this morning to the drum of rain on the roof and skylights.  It has rained more in the last three days than in the entire rest of our trip (not that I'm complaining . . .).  Some of you may recall that I said, on more than one occasion, that "you'd want to be everywhere in May."  Well, I suppose this is what I get for dissing all of those other months.  OK, February, March, April, and June, I'm sorry.  You can stop punishing me now.  I love you all too.  You're fantastic.  Way better than May, in fact.

We thought, here in Cannes, that we'd be warming up the paparazzi and autograph hounds for the film festival and dining on ocean-view terraces in the waning hours of the warm, sultry evenings.  Instead, we found ourselves hunkered down in a traditional Swiss restaurant the other night, eating fondue and raclette.  Quite an experience for all of us.  I'm sure our faces were amusing to see when they brought the half wheel of cheese over and hooked it up to that ancient work lamp.  Jonah voted this his second best dinner of the entire trip, after, of course, the insane pasta in Chamonix.

During the few breaks in the rainy weather, we have made the effort to get out and be seen on the Croisette, hobnobbing with the movie stars, you know, the usual pre-festival activities.  It was great seeing George especially--it's been such a long time.  He's looking as good as ever.  We haven't had the chance to catch up with Brad and Angie yet, but we're hoping to do lunch with them before we head out of town.

George always seems much taller on screen.  In fact, he's just an inch or so taller than Jonah.

I'm still not sure how Sierra fit those boots into her small suitcase.

Jonah was so happy to see his bud Chewie again!  It seems like it's been light years.

Tour de France

We've been gone from Barcelona for less than a week and have already done so much I can't keep track of it all.  Right now we are in Cannes and it is raining, providing a little break for some blogging!  I hope everyone caught Jonah's post.  After he posted it, he got caught up reading through my earlier posts.  It made me smile to hear him laugh several times.  And, it seems to have inspired him, as he says he plans to post something else soon.

Thanks to Tom's careful planning, our own tour de France is off and running.  Before it officially kicked off, we did get the chance to see the Dali Museum in Figures, Spain, which was quite a wild adventure.  We also spent a night in the lovely coastal town of Roses, where we even got to play some beach volleyball on a court with a net!  Very exciting for the volleyball fans in the family (3 out of 4--Jonah did reluctantly play along, however.  He's working on his sets).

 Our own Mr. Yellow, enjoying the beautiful beach in Roses.

One of Dali's grand projects, viewed through the special viewer at the top of a very strange staircase.

After leaving Roses, we drove into France, where Sierra and I were relived of the job of family communicators/interpreters (a job for which we are both fairly ill-equipped---especially me), and Tom, the fluent French speaker, took over.  I'm fairly confident now that we won't run into another situation where I think the guy just told me a table will be available in about 5 minutes, when, in reality, he told me that all the tables are reserved and they probably can't accommodate us.  Our first stop in France was La Ciotat, on the Mediterranean coast.  After being Rick-less (Rick Steves, that is) during most of our time in Barcelona, we are happy to be carrying his book again to guide us in our travels.  La Ciotat, unfortunately, was not Rickommended.  However, because we had trouble finding a place in the nearby city of Cassis, which he loves, we had to settle for sleeping in La Ciotat and taking a day trip to Cassis.  We agree with Rick that Cassis has far more charm than La Ciotat and we enjoyed our day there immensely.  The drive over along La Route des Cretes was magnificent and would have been enough to keep us happy for the whole day.

Once in Cassis, however, things did not start out so well.  As we arrived in town, we remembered that it was market day, which made parking nearly impossible.  After nearly getting our new leased car wedged in a crowded parking lot, and failing at another effort to secure a spot when a flock of angry French drivers were barreling down on us, we finally found a temporary home for our little Peugeot.  I was sweating and grumpy after that, and may have even spoken a non-blog-appropriate word or two.  Luckily, we found a delicious lunch at the market and I had pretty much recovered by the time we finished enjoying our picnic on the beach.

We then headed over to our primary destination in Cassis, the calanques.  For those of you unfamiliar with the term (as all of us were prior to this trip), calanques are Mediterranean fjords formed, in part, by the movement of glaciers.  Rick promised that we'd find the hike along the calanques breathtaking, and he was right.  The water was many incredible shades of blue and green, the flowers were in full bloom, and the rain showers that threatened to dampen our fun dissipated just as we set out on our hike (after a 10 minute interlude in our car to allow a small squall to pass).  Enjoy these amazing photos by Sierra for a little taste of the beauty of our walk.

 That's all for now, folks.  Stay tuned for the next leg of our Tour de France, coming soon!

This is for you David Tobin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello peeps these are cute animals from Greece.
The first one is a donkey from the island of Kea.
The second one is a kitty from Porto Fira Suites in Santorini   
The third one is a dog from somewhere in Santorini.
The last one is a puppy from Santorini, there was a brown one too but my picture was blurry. It ran away before I could get a good picture.                        By Jonah Tobin

P.S. sorry about the blank space on the right, blogs do weird things.
P.P.S. This is for you too Mimi.  

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Saying goodbye to Barcelona

Today is our last day in Barcelona.  We have had a fabulous time here and there is much we will miss (and a few things we won't). The casual, easy-going way here suits us all very well.  There has been lots to see and do, and we have many highlights from our time here (and about 2167 photos--thanks Sierra and Jonah!).

Sierra has enjoyed having her people take care of her.

Some days, Barcelona looks a lot like Santa Cruz.

We've been going at a slower pace the last week or so, enjoying the good weather and lots of time on the beach.  Much more, in fact, than we ever spend as a family while we are at home in Santa Cruz.  Funny how that works.  Living in the city for 8 weeks (first Florence, now here) has been fun and easy, but we are looking forward to a more peaceful (and hopefully less smoky) stay in our travels through mostly smaller towns in France.

Sierra gives some volleyball coaching to her somewhat reluctant student, Jonah.


Here, in no particular order, are some of our favorite things from our time in Barcelona:

• Picasso Museum (don't trust any guidebooks that say it's somewhat disappointing--we all loved it--especially his many riffs on Velazquez's Las Meninas)
• manchego cheese
• La Boqueria
• the many gardens of Montjuic
• Miro Museum
• anything and everything Gaudi, especially Park Guell, La Sagrada Familia, and Casa Batllo
• OK, and La Pedrera too--what can we say, we love Gaudi!
• playing volleyball on the beach

• tapas (well, two of us loved them, one of us didn't care as long as they had cheese, and one of us did not like them because he never got enough food)
• El Born
• the clean and efficient metro
• Las Caracoles
• all the action and activity outside our door (except at 2 a.m.)
• the abundant blue and green sea glass on the Barceloneta beaches 
• the fountain show at Font Majica

• El Vaso de Oro
• morning bike rides up to Montjuic (you've just read Tom's contribution to the blog)
• Spanish classes at Enforex
• churros y chocolate

 While we are traveling in France, there will be either more posts to the blog, because there will be so much more to share (thanks to Tom's amazing and exhaustive trip planning), or fewer because of less access to the computers and/or the internet.  However, I can guarantee that there will be at least one blog post from someone other than me (I know, you're thinking "finally!"), because Jonah wants to please his big cousin David and his Mimi, both of whom wondered why he hadn't posted anything.  And once Jonah posts something, Sierra will undoubtedly want to chime in as well, right Sierra?

Lots of sun in Barcelona--finally!

I am thankful to report that we are finally experiencing some of the weather we anticipated in Barcelona--warm and sunny. 

Tom shows us how he feels about the change in the weather.









Last week was quite cool, drizzly and dreary.  Luckily for us, the timing was fairly good, as Sierra and I were in Spanish classes all week, and Tom was toiling away vigorously on trip planning for the balance of our trip after Barcelona.  Jonah got lots of school work done and enjoyed several visits with his good friend Keith, who was here in town with his family for the week.

The awesome Spanish student.  No basico for her!











Having not taken classes in . . . ahem . . . many years, I wasn't sure how it would go being a student of Spanish.  However, I really enjoyed my time at Enforex language school, and Sierra did as well.  She, of course, was several levels above me, but each of us felt that we learned quite a bit, and we were especially appreciative of the opportunity to practice speaking Spanish.  The week was intense, with classes for 5 full hours each day, but rewarding.  We actually considered signing up for another week, but decided that there were too many other things we wanted to do before we leave Barcelona the middle of next week.  Now, looking at the beautiful day and great forecast for the week, I think we made the right decision.  We wouldn't want to be suffering spring fever after only a week of school.

The middle of this past week also marked the middle of our sabbatical.  It's hard to believe we are now more than halfway through our adventure.  We have seen and done so much in the last 2 1/2 months, and have so much more to see and do in the 2 1/2 months that remain.  We've had a couple of very minor hitches here and there, but overall, I think we can all agree that it has been an amazingly wonderful experience so far, allowing us to experience so many different places and cultures and to enjoy a level of family togetherness that is so elusive at home.

And, having said all that, Tom and I are going on a date tonight and Jonah is as excited about that as a kid on Christmas.

 The view from our balcony yesterday morning during the Curso Bombers 2010.  That was one huge road race!

The beautiful sights at one of the many amazing gardens at Montjuic.

Gaudi and Grandparents

We had a great time this past week with my mom and step-dad in town.  The first couple of days were pretty low-key as they adjusted to the time change.  We visited Montjuic, including the castle at the peak and took in the fabulous views.  We also went to the Chocolate Museum, and everyone enjoyed eating their "tickets" for dessert that evening.  We had to abandon our plans to go to the Picasso Museum when we realized that "free first Sunday" equals line lasting for many blocks.  We finished that day, Easter Sunday, with a Catelonian tradition, La Mona--a cake traditionally given to a god-child by his or her god-father on Easter  All agreed that la mona looked much tastier than it was.

Tom and Poppy proudly display La Mona that they hunted down after a vigorous search.







After that, it was a veritable Gaudi-fest!  For those of you unfamiliar with this icon of Catelonian architecture, Gaudi was the prolific leader of the Modernism movement in Barcelona.  His most famous and recognizable work is La Sagrada Familia, which consumed Gaudi in the final years of his life and remains unfinished to this day, over 100 years after it was begun.  You may have seen photos of it and heard it referred to as the "drip castle," which seems apropos from the outside.

Once inside, we were captivated by the posts and ceiling, mimicking a forest of palm trees, and the colorful and geometric stained glass windows.  Even more fascinating than the cathedral itself (which will be a sight to behold when it is finished in 30 years, and I plan to see it in person), was the exhibit on Gaudi's philosophy of how architecture must relate to the natural world in all its elements.  His work is certainly crazy to look at, but he clearly was a genius in his understanding and application of science, nature and math to his projects.


We continued to marvel at Gaudi creations over the next few days, including La Pedrera, an enormous wavy structure originally built as an apartment and office building, and Palau Guell and Park Guell, both of which were commissioned and funded by Gaudi's primary benefactor, Eusebi Guell.

While we loved La Pedrera, especially its undulating roofline covered with human looking towers, Park Guell was our favorite spot of all, with meandering paths, aqueduct-style ramps replete with cozy sitting spots, the large open gathering space upheld by a forest of palm-like columns, and the gingerbread-looking castles and mosaic dragon at the entry.

Our wonderful time together this week flew by much too fast and we are now suffering grandparent withdrawal!  The coming week will be light on blog posts (unless I add some more pictures from last week), as Sierra and I will be spending 5 hours each day in Spanish classes!  Ack!  It's been many years since I've been in school and estoy un poquito nerviosa!

One of the amazing views from Park Guell